A Forum for Orthodox Jewish thought on Halacha, Hashkafa, and the social issues of our time.

Tuesday, June 06, 2017

Conservative Judaism, Homosexuality, and Halacha

First let me reiterate what I have said countless times on
the subject of homosexuality. There is absolutely no sin in being attracted to
members of the same sex. That is nobody’s business and the Torah is not
concerned with it. What the Torah is concerned with is the act that usually
accompanies that. Which the Torah puts this way:

A man may not lie with a man as with women - it is an
abomination (Vayikra 18:22) and… A man that lies with a man – in the manner of women,
both have committed an abomination - they shall surely be put to death; their
blood is upon them. (Vayikra 20:13)

In other words it’s the act. Not the inclination. We
therefore have an obligation to treat all people – no matter who they are attracted
to with human dignity. Mental health professionals have determined that one’s sexual
preferences are ‘hard-wired’ so to speak. Whether this is because of nature; or
nurture; or both - is immaterial. The consensus among professionals is that
sexual orientation cannot be changed.

If that’s the case, how can we reconcile that with the Torah
attitude? I can’t answer that question fully except to say that Torah law
stands immutable. We cannot say that something is permitted when it is
expressly prohibited. No matter how much some people have tried to do that.

For a gay Jew that accepts the Divine nature of the Torah,
this presents a major challenge. If one
is attracted only to members of the same sex - that doesn’t mean he can simply abandon God’s
expressed will in the Torah.

On the other hand that doesn’t change the desire. So if someone
is gay and refrains from the Torah’s prohibitive act, he is praiseworthy. If he
tries to refrain but succumbs to his normal (for him) desires - he is no
different that any of the rest of us that succumb to desires which are
forbidden by the Torah. It’s all about attitude. One must acknowledge what the
will of God is and try to follow it. If we fail, it is because we are human. And
it is why the concept of Teshuva (repentance) exists.

How should the Torah world treat homosexual Jews? The short
answer (which I’ve mentioned many times) is ‘love the sinner- hate the sin’.

I wish we could end the discussion there. Unfortunately the
times in which we live insist on a different response. Society now demands that we not
only ‘love the sinner’ but that ‘we love the sin’ too. For those of us that believe that Torah law is the Divine word
of God, that is unacceptable. Just as prejudice against gay people is
unacceptable. Orthodox Judaism stands firm on these principles.

An article in the Forward discusses how the Conservative Movement
is grappling with all of this. And for a movement that claims to be Halachic,
the attitude of some of their leaders is quite astonishing.

They now permit their rabbis to perform same sex marriages.
That in essence gives homosexuals ‘permission’ to violate the Torah. Marriage
in Jewish law is what permits (and even encourages) a man and woman to engage
in sex. Gay marriage should do the same. Obviously that’s impossible.

And yet they do seem to at least give a nod to the Torah
prohibition. From the Forward:

The problem is that even while Conservative life is
inclusive of LGBTQ people, it still places limits on their most intimate lives.
It instructs gay men to avoid anal sex precisely because of the verse (in the
Torah forbidding it) and urged bisexual people to pursue relationships with
those of the opposite sex. It also cited heterosexuality as the ideal sexual
orientation.

But that attitude is now under attack. More from the
Forward:

(Conservative gay Rabbi Amichai) Lau-Lavie and other
Conservative rabbis believe those rules should be abandoned.
Forty-nine-year-old Rabbi Adina Lewittes, who identifies as a lesbian, is
leading the charge...

(Rabbi Elliot Dorff supports) Lewittes’s proposal to erase
the anal sex ban and the language on bisexuality, and holds the right position
to advance it, as head of the (Conservative) movement’s lawmaking body, the
Committee on Jewish Law and Standards...

It is unclear whether Conservative Judaism will actually
abandon the Torah mandate completely. As the Forward article notes: ‘a majority of the
committee’s 25 voting members, all of them rabbis, would have to approve it.’ There are still some members of the Conservative
leadership that value the Torah’s clear demands.

But I think the trend is to move away from that kind of
thinking. Torah law is being set aside in order to serve modern sensibilities. Treating
gay and straight sex the same is one of those sensibilities. That is very understandable. You want your
fellow man to be treated as an equal in every respect. But for Orthodox Jews, as
much as modern sensibilities must be considered, if they contradict the Torah,
those sensibilities are set aside.

If there is any question about whether Conservative Judaism is Halachic or not, what happens here should settle it once and for all.

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.